Sherman's 8,000-seat campus stadium set to host varsity football; Bearcat Stadium stays in use

Sherman ISD's new Tommy Hudspeth Athletic Complex, an 8,000-seat stadium on the Sherman High School campus, is set to become the Bearcats' varsity football home, and the old grounds are not closing. The district's stadium guidelines keep Bearcat Stadium in service for middle school and youth sports. District tour materials split the new seating between 5,000 places on the home side and 3,000 for visitors.

The tour sheet counts 1,700 chair-back seats among the home-side places. Sherman ISD's open-house announcement describes improved seating, security and wheelchair accessibility, a new press box, elevators and a live video board at the south end. Four concession stands join the one already on the site, giving three home-side and two visitor-side locations, with wheelchair-accessible restrooms sized for a full house, according to the tour sheet.

The district has announced a community open house Saturday, with gates opening at 5 p.m. and a ribbon cutting an hour later. The first varsity home game at the new stadium is scheduled for Sept. 18 against The Colony. Varsity football moves from Bearcat Stadium, where Sherman ISD says athletic competitions have been held since 1941. A 2023 United Soccer League announcement dates the older structure's construction to 1940, a year before the district's stated start of athletic use.

The district says holding competitions on campus eliminates the need to bus students or have them drive to Bearcat Stadium. Tour materials say the project reuses the high school's field, track, field house, concessions and infrastructure, adds about 900 parking spaces shared with the school, and sets the home stands on the west side so most of the crowd sits in shade at evening events. The same materials list soccer, track and field, band, cheer and the Hi-Steppers among the programs the complex will serve, along with students in broadcast, audiovisual and journalism career courses.

Voters cleared the way. Grayson County's official returns from the May 6, 2023, election show Sherman ISD's Proposition B passing with about 64 percent. The district's bond pages place the stadium inside a $540 million program and say the work is being paid for without a tax-rate increase, crediting growth in the property-tax base from high-tech industry. Sherman ISD's financial transparency records show the debt-service rate unchanged between 2022-23 and 2025-26, with the combined rate lower.

Trustees approved a guaranteed maximum construction price in November 2024. The district's construction-price document totals roughly $55 million, a construction figure rather than a final audited project cost, and Sherman ISD's announcement says the opening moved up from 2029 to 2026.

USL lists Bearcat Stadium's capacity at 6,500, which against the district's published 8,000 works out to 1,500 more seats. For scale, McKinney ISD Stadium seats 12,000 and serves three high schools, according to that city's tourism bureau, and Denison ISD's facilities page shows the Yellow Jackets still playing downtown at Munson Stadium. Calallen ISD reports that its own stadium proposition failed in May 2023 and came back with the same scope in a 2024 bond proposal.

Sherman High School's ticket announcement sets reserved season tickets at $48 for four home games, equivalent to $12 per reserved seat per game. Northwest ISD's ticketing announcement lists $11 for a reserved varsity seat in 2026-27, in presales and on game day.